Missing in Action

…or rather, INaction. 

I used to blog incessantly, about every little thing, no matter how trivial.  I was constantly amazed that anyone at all visited my blog but somehow over the years I attracted a following of people who, for whatever reason, found my relatively mundane life interesting.

Then I joined Facebook and I slowly stared posting trivialities about my mundane life there instead of on my blog.

Oddly enough, I constantly ask myself now whether a topic is blog worthy – which I never used to do.  And 99% of the time I answer myself with a resounding NO.  So I Facebook said topic instead which, truth be told, simply bores a different audience!

Regardless of whether my loyal readers miss me, I miss blogging!  So I’m making an effort to come back.  Brace yourself more of the truly mundane!

So where have I been, you ask? 

Mostly hanging out here in the Land of Limbo. 

Although my company Sandcastle Educational Consulting is still alive and well (though a bit dormant at the moment), I am looking for full-time work as an Educational Media Specialist (“I create experiences that engage and inspire youth and families”) with my eye and heart focused on one position in particular with Microsoft’s Kinect for Kids.  Just how perfect would THAT be?!

I’ve interviewed twice and now it’s pretty much a waiting game while that team re-structures and figures out what their needs are and where (if anywhere) I’d best fit.  My fingers have been crossed for so long that I have a feeling they’re stuck this way forever – which is fine, because hope and optimism never hurt anyone.

And if that position doesn’t pan out, I’ll do my own re-assessing.  Unfortunately, Sandcastle doesn’t offer great benefits that allow us to save for retirement, which is really where we need to focus now that we’re ONE TUITION PAYMENT AWAY (!!!) from being done with paying for kids’ college – something we’ve done for the past ten years solid!

So instead of waiting until everything is resolved and all nice and pretty, as I’ve been doing thus far, I guess I’ll blog all the ups and downs and ins and outs of my life – just as I did for five years until I… didn’t.

And hey, guess what?  I’m solidly on the road to getting back in shape and finding a new healthy me – or, as I indicate on the masthead of my blog at My Fitness Pal, “steadfastly clawing my way back from the depths of LETTING MYSELF GO.”  This journey is a tough one and has been where I’ve focused the majority of my energy lately.  After almost 30 years of focusing on everyone else’s health and needs, I am finally, finally focusing on my own.  It actually is beginning to feel good and I am actually beginning to look forward to the endorphin rush that I get each day when I work out at the gym. 

I know – that looks funny to me too!  Me?  Working out daily at a gym?  Yup!  I lift weights (a full circuit!), sweat on the elliptical, and swim.  Something every single day.  Me!  Can you believe it?  And for two months now I’ve tracked every single morsel that’s gone into my mouth – which is so easy using the My Fitness Pal app’s bar code scanner!

So ten pounds down, forty to go.  Ugh – that just looks so daunting!  But I’m taking it one pound, one centimeter , one lap, and one carrot at a time, allowing myself a full year to accomplish my goal.  If nothing else, I should feel better this year (my third!) at the Danskin Triathlon… where I plan to actually jog, rather than walk for the first time since breaking my ankle three years ago.

So yeah, that’s where I’ve been.  I promise not to stay away for so long again… as long as you promise that you won’t mind if I go back to posting the mundane. 

Me = Triathlete!

It IS true!  It IS!  That feeling they say you’ll have upon completing your first Danskin Triathlon IS as amazing as they say it is!

The primary feeling I have right now is gratitude.

Gratitude first and foremost for my amazing daughter Elisabeth, who told me a year ago that she’d do this with me and who made good on her promise, beginning with walks around Green Lake for months on end, and culminating today when she patiently stayed with me all along, even though she is an accomplished athlete in her own right,  having recently finished a few half-marathons. 

We said all along that we’d cross the finish line together, and we did.  Tom, Peter, and Kat (Aleks got no sleep last night, so stayed home) were even there to capture the whole thing on video!

My gratitude also goes wholeheartedly to Jennifer, the Swim Angel, who got me off to a great start by talking me off a, well, a wave that I hit (figuratively and literally) within the first few hundred feet of the swim and who gave me the encouragement to find my rhythm, believe in myself (in spite of gulps of choppy water), and do what I knew I could do – which was rock the swim (in spite of massive amounts of seaweed which, amazingly enough, didn’t bother me at all).  Elisabeth, whose strong suit is running and biking more than swimming, stayed with Jennifer a bit longer – though I have a feeling that they just enjoyed chatting at that point!  Thanks Jennifer – you are truly an inspiration! 

Hundreds of volunteers lined the race course today, and every single one of them was so encouraging and helpful!  Between them rooting for the triathletes and the triathletes encouraging each other every single step of the way, the mood through the entire race was 100% positive, encouraging, and supportive.  THAT was absolutely incredible!

Since we’re dolling out the thanks, I really, really need to thank a blackberry bush about 2 miles into the run/walk that provided a much needed energy boost.  Ah, August in Seattle!  And the ice that was being passed out on this 97-degree day… totally awesome too!

I did get one call out from someone who passed me near the end of the run and said, “NorthwestLadybug! I read your blog!”  Her name was Minuko, if I remember correctly   That felt GREAT!

Thanks, of course, to my awesome family who stood in the very hot sun at the finish line for an hour and a half, just to cheer us on!  (Aleks cheered – albeit sleepily -- when I got home…)

We’ve already decided that next year, BOTH my daughters will join me and that we’ll all three rock the 2011 Seattle Triathlon! 

Any mom/daughter teams want to join us?  We can definitely promise a good time!

So that’s that. 

A year ago, as I stood in my Air Boot and watched Marcy cross the finish line, I told myself I’d be out there in 2010… that I could do it, in spite of a badly broken ankle that feels like it will always be considered “on the mend” (it hurt every step of the way today!) and in spite of being 53, overweight, and out of shape.

You know when I fully believed myself? 

Today, as the countdown to enter the water reached terrifyingly close to zero and the volunteer said, “Ladies, you can now call yourself triathletes!  Now GO!”

The day before the Danskin

The actual swimming, biking and running (walking) of the Danskin Triathlon will take a few hours, but the complete event actually takes a full weekend.

For the past six months or so I’ve been training in isolation or, when I do train with someone, it’s been ONE other someone -- like Elisabeth, when we did a complete (all-three-sports, all-three- distances) dry run last week.

So imagine my surprise when we parked at Seattle Center today to pick up race materials and we were greeted by this!

It turns out that the portion of the line that you can see here was maybe one-tenth of the actual length of the line. It went on…

…and on…

…and on…

 

…and on! 

It wound down the street and around blocks for maybe a third of a mile.  “Insanity!” Elisabeth kept saying, comparing this to the Rock and Roll Marathon that she just ran, which apparently had three time the participants and no lines.  But hey, it is what it is.  We found ways to pass the time in line…

  This is no time to get impatient because I had a feeling the line was just the beginning of a day of crowds.

I was, um… RIGHT!

Once we entered the Exposition Hall where we were to pick up our race materials, we were greeted by more crowds.

 

And I just kept thinking, ‘They’re all gonna be kicking me in the face in Lake Washington!’ 

I really liked this woman’s shirt, because it’s exactly how I feel:

(It says, “The miracle is not that I finished.  The miracle is that I began.”  Amen, sista!)

After we had out numbers permanently emblazoned on pour skin…

OK, that’s number 4-7-3-0, and…

My number is 3742, but you’ll probably more easily recognize me by my shirt:

 

(You will say HI if you see me, riiiiight?!  Please DO!)

After we picked up all our materials, Tom and I went to REI to kill some time so we wouldn’t run into such big crowds when it was time to rack our bikes. We bought a bike rack for the car and then I remembered that Feierabend, a German restaurant that we’ve wanted to try for months now, is just two blocks from the downtown REI store, so you better believe that we made a bee-line for a beer the restaurant!

The beer was fabulous!

The “Vorespeise” were good (and tasted like my childhood!)…

But honestly, the käsespätzle, “pretty” as it was, was nowhere as good as our own!

All carb-loaded up, we headed to Genesse Park to rack our bikes.  Of course, we were greeted by a sea of bikes – about, oh… 5000 of them!

Then we walked to the water for a preview of the swim course…

…and I had a teensey-winsey freak out…

And then I took a video to show the lay of the – er, water and the general triathlon course.

By this time, the 97-degree was getting the best of us and it was time to head home over the same bridge we’ll be riding on tomorrow…

We might even be treated to the same view tomorrow that we were treated to today…

So now it’s time for a nap, some more carbs (I’m in a one-day pasta heaven!), and ice and heat on my poor ankle that is whining and fussing and insisting that this is really a very bad idea.

Shut up, ankle!

How to squeeze a week’s worth of vacation into a day and a half

1.) Attend wedding of husband’s dear childhood friend

 

2.) Notice that the little five-year-old who was the ring bearer at your own wedding (the son of today’s groom) has grown up to be a charming 33 year-old with a wife and child of his own.  Feel old.  Take photo of him, your apparently also now-old husband, the groom’s sister, and the groom:

 

3.) Notice that, thank goodness, best childhood friends never really grow up:

 

4.) Immediately after said wedding, head northward to Lake Pend Oreille, where said husband’s sister has a glorious cabin on Bottle Bay, a place that immediately brings about a feel of peace and tranquility.

5.) Marvel at how your husband manages to have two vacations at once: 

6.) In the morning, cook breakfast (including bacon – which should only ever be eaten when camping… wonder if this counts as camping) and eat it on the deck, overlooking Bottle Bay.  Have reading material and old-people glasses at the ready.

7.) Welcome extended family, owners of said cabin, who come to join you for the day.  Enjoy speedboat ride around Lake Pend Oreille:

8.) Adore your goofball of a niece…

9.) Decide that you really should play the lottery more often.

…that this is a place of childhood dreams (and nursery rhymes)…

…where the cow really does jump over the moon…

 

…and princesses do get rescued from the castle tower.  (Or might, once the whole castle is built?!?!)

10.) Decide that reality dictates that you will be swimming an open water leg of a triathlon soon and you really do need to practice.

11.) Feel fairly confident… at the beginning.

…glad that your prince will accompany you on in his white  blue steed kayak.

12.) Swim occasional spurts, between “Ewwww, seaweed!  I hear motor boats!” freak-outs.

13.) Be glad that’s over for the day (note to self: must try again tomorrow) and decide to enjoy time with family instead.

14.) Adore sweetheart of a nephew… who, at 17, would probably hate being called a sweetheart.  (But he really is…)

15.) Spend some solitary time just floating.

16.) Remember that we’re cooking dinner tonight.  Tom made “the best ribs on earth”!

  

17.) Attempt to take photos of the sunset.  Realize I can’t do it justice…

  18.) …so turn my attention to taking more photos of goofy and adorable niece…

…and her goofy friend…

…and sweetheart of a nephew, with a sweetheart of his own.

19.) On the morning of our departure (still only a day and a half after arrival), take a canoe ride with hubby, to the end of Bottle Bay, where there are pussy willows…

…and turtles…

…and, unfortunately, litter.

20.) Marvel at the For Sale sign, advertising about 100 feet of shoreline property.  Completely and utterly unusable property, as there’s about 4 feet of “shoreline,” a road above it, and cliffs above that.

Oh, another For Sale sign, with no hope for building anything!

(And the only current resident, insistent that really, you don’t want this place…)

21.) Enjoy the silly side of your brother-in-law as you both create an off-color game with the ant salt and pepper shakers.

   

22.) About 36 hours after arriving in Idaho, just as you were beginning to relax and feel all vacationy, pack your bags, get back in the car, and head back west, into the very hazy sunset.

23.) Look forward to the arrival of your father and his new wife tomorrow – the first time you’ve seen them since attending their wedding via Skype last November!